Alan Turing was one of the greatest minds of the 20th century and for years, decades even, only a handful of people knew what he did.

But word has gotten out more recently about how the Cambridge-educated mathematician successfully led Britain’s effort to crack the Nazi military’s communication encryption system known as the Enigma Code.

Computer scientists have been aware for quite a while that Turing invented one of the first processing machines as a part of that effort, as well as making other contributions to the then-nascent field. And less than a year ago Queen Elizabeth II pardoned Turing for the “gross indecency” charge — code, at the time, for homosexual acts — he was convicted of in 1952. The chemical castration punishment that the genius chose instead of imprisonment dulled his brain, and he committed suicide in 1954.

“The Imitation Game” covers much of that secret history with some dramatic license applied to the still remarkable story. (Since their wartime work was classified, Turing and his team were prohibited from ever talking about it, or even seeing one another again.) Although there have been other dramatizations of the code-breaking efforts at the Bletchley Park estate 50 miles northwest of London, “The Imitation Game,” directed by Norway’s Morten Tyldum and adapted by Graham Moore from Andrew Hodges’ book “Alan Turing: The Enigma,” endeavors to portray the full scope of the math whiz’s life and character as well.

Benedict Cumberbatch, the Emmy Award-winning “Sherlock” actor who plays Turing, says he was introduced to the historic figure when Derek Jacobi played Turing in the 1996 BBC film “Breaking the Code,” which aired in 1997 on PBS’ “Masterpiece Theatre.”

“Then there were semi-fictional incarnations of him in ‘Enigma’ [2001] and other films. But really, once I’d read Graham’s script, I was so inspired by it and I started to read about the subject,” says Cumberbatch, who also voices the wolf Classified in this week’s the just-released “Penguins of Madagascar,” Smaug the dragon in next month’s the upcoming “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.”

Although Turing is introduced as extremely socially awkward and perhaps unintentionally arrogant in the film, Cumberbatch points out that much more of Turing’s troubled and embattled personality emerges as the time-hopping script unfolds.

“It’s very much from the script, and Graham researched the hell out of this subject,” the actor says of the role’s off-putting traits. “But what you discover when you watch the film is why he’s wrapped up in himself. I think he constantly struggled with language and with being in social situations from a very, very young age. It’s all down to emotional insecurity. But what I think is beautiful about the film is you understand where his emotional security becomes strong again and he blossoms.”

But wartime circumstances and prejudicial laws make that a very come-and-go thing for Turing. A similar, though mostly nurturing, effect results from his relationship with Joan Clarke.

The only female member of the group and a formidable mathematician in her own right, Clarke is really only welcomed by Turing to the Bletchley Park boys club. When she threatens to leave due to parental disapproval — proper English ladies were supposed to marry, not do calculations, in the 1940s — her gay boss Turing proposes marriage in order to keep her around.

While acknowledging that some of the movie’s presentation is fictitious, Keira Knightley, who plays Clarke, believes the woman’s story is a great one to tell in any manner.

“This isn’t a film about Joan Clarke, but I think you could possibly make one about her,” Knightley says. “She’s a fascinating character. A lot of the things in this aren’t completely historically accurate about her, but she was there. She was part of the team that cracked Enigma, and she did have a very hard time getting into the room even though she was more than qualified to be there.

“Indeed, she was one of the most brilliant mathematical minds in England at that time. She was engaged to Alan for a very brief time, and their friendship is very real.

Each of these characters is so fascinating, Knightley reemphasizes that spin-off films could be made — if only the information was out there.

“It was really top-secret information until the ’90s, and only declassified then. Even then, a lot of the people didn’t talk; they’d trained themselves not to, there was just no possibility of them letting their secrets out. So even now, we don’t know as much as we’d possibly like to,” she says.

Any thoughts that “The Imitation Game” may play like a theoretical exercise are misguided, however. Especially in the film’s climactic stretch, the emotional impact is devastating.

Filming that shook up Cumberbatch, too.

“I just got completely lost in his tragedy,” the actor reveals. “I tried to pace myself for the last scene, but I could not stop crying. I could not stop kind of keening for this guy who was wronged. It disgusted and profoundly upset me. That was a difficult day, but it was a rather extraordinary day. It really affected me.”

“He was one of the fathers of the computer, and so we can still feel his work today — and, obviously, he made one of the arguably most important breaks of the Second World War that led to the Allies beating the Germans,” Knightley observes of Turing. “Who knows what would have happened if they hadn’t broken that code? You don’t need to understand math to get all of that.

“Equally, it’s a celebration of differences,” she says of the film. “It’s about the frightening nature of prejudice, and what can be destroyed when we allow prejudice to inform governmental policy and everything else.”

Bob Straus has been covering film at the L.A. Daily News since 1989. He wouldn't say the movies have gotten worse in that time, but they do keep getting harder to love. Fortunately, he still loves them.

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